Augustine

• Thought God was dualistic (good and bad)
• Modern day - The Fall as a symbol of a spiritual journey


  The creation, Fall and redemption reflects an individual's relationship with the world - losing innocence and engaging with life's reality

  The Fall isn't a one-off, it's when when each person rebels against God.
• pre-lapsarian


  pre-fall
• Pre-lapsarian nature involved:

  • World in a perfect state
  • Complete harmony amongst God, humanity and the land. Humans unaware of nakedness and human will - Augustine = state of perfection
  • Humans had free will in harmony - driven by cupiditas (self-love) and caritas (generous love) so human nature was united
  • Adam only slept with Eve for procreation - no lust and a loving friendship was present (Concordia)
• post-lapsarian

  post-fall
• Post-lapsarian human nature involved:

  • Godly relationship ruined by pride (separation of cupiditas and caritas) -Augustine = humans ate from the tree to be like God
  • Satan fell from grace due to pride and tried to rule Earth
  • rebellion = outcome of human free will
  • concupiscence - man can't control lust/any uncontrollable desires
  • divided will = weakened soul by desires - akrasia (weakness of will)
• What could the pre-lapsarian state provide to society according to Augustine?

  Useful contradictions to society
• How does the united nature in Augustine's teachings contradict current society?

  It boosts agape and rejects akrasia
• What problems outlined by Augustine are still relevant today?

  Lust
• What issue does Augustine identify that remains a problem today?

  Concupiscence
• Teachings aren't relevant today

  • Too dependent on Genesis - invalidates theory. e.g evolution
  • biased - reliant on personal narrative and negativity about sex
  • too dependent on God
  • a literal reading of Genesis limits his audience to Christian literalists alone
• Due to the Fall, we are all morally evil at birth

  • example includes Anders Breivik - bombed 69 people with no remorse
• Pelagius (disputed with Augustine)

  • humans have enough free will to overcome personal sin
  • Fall didn't cause universal guilt, societal influences corrupted human nature
• Richard Dawkins - ' The God of Delusion'


  • Dislikes Original Sin and blames Augustine for human suffering - "what kind of ethical philosophy is it that condemns every child, even before it is born, to inherit a sin"
  • Believed in evolution so the Genesis story doesn't make sense - they wouldn't have the active consciousness to rebel
  • The Fall contains an unhealthy obsession with guilt, repressed sexuality and violence
  • Jesus' crucifixion = "sadomasochistic"
• Steven Pinker - 'The Better Angels of Our Nature' 


  • humanitarian principle = humans get on better when they consider the interests of others - we don't need God's grace, we need autonomous rational negotiation with "mutual unselfishness"
• St. Paul emphasizes grace as a 'gift' in Ephesians 2:8, indicating it cannot be earned.
• Augustine's connection of predestination to original sin and grace.
• Sigmund Freud 


  • against repressed sexuality
  • Cure for neurosis is through psychoanalysis, instead of God's grace
  • A belief in God only produces guilt
  • Augustine and Freud both accept the centrality of the libido in human relations
• "the human person is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake." - Catechism of the Catholic Church
• "Oh Lord give me chastity, but do not give it yet" - Augustine's repressed sexuality and consistent akrasia
• "passion is the evil in adultery" - Augustine believed that concupiscence and akrasia were the two main things that lead to the separation of cupiditas and caritas
• Augustine argued that theme of Harmony continued from Genesis 1 into Genesis 2 - Adam named animals at God's request = obedience to creator
• ‘they would not have arrived at an evil act if an evil will had not proceeded it.’ - Augustine's view on the Fall, it was the fault of human nature. Lead to separation of caritas and cupiditas
• Augustine - Eve was Adam's marriage partner so sexuality was a part of their life


  Carol Meyers - The word that has been translated to 'man' in the Bible means 'earth creature'. Suggests that sex wasn't present so Augustine's theory of original sin has no basis
• Schleiermacher - a perfect world gone wrong is logically impossible. Either the world wasn't perfect, or God let it go wrong.
• Phyllis Trible - 'Rhetoric of Sexuality'


  • the woman would seem to be motivated by ‘good will’ when she decided to eat the fruit. She decides to eat it because it is "was good for food…a delight to the eyes, and…to be desired to make one wise" (3:6)
  • it is not described as a sin at any point in the text. Indeed, the word sin does not feature in the Bible until Genesis 4 when Cain kills able.
• St Irenaeus


  • God created Adam and Eve as spiritually immature children. They were made in God’s image (reason and free will) but had to grow into God’s likeness.
  • God did not make them ‘perfectly good’ because goodness is something that has to be developed naturally.
• Augustine's predestination

  • God graciously allows some people to be saved through the death and Resurrection.
  • Augustine is clear that if a person is saved it is not because of their own merits but because God has enabled them to be saved.
  • God’s omniscience is such that he knows who will reject him and who will accept him with the help of his grace. He even knew that Adam and Eve would reject him in the garden - “I am God, and there is none like me. I declare from the beginning how it will end and foretell from the start what has not yet happened.
• "all evil is either sin or punishment for sin"
• Harmony before the Fall

  • St. Augustine's interpretation of Genesis 3 (the Fall) was that there was harmony in the world before the Fall.
  • There was harmony between:
  • God and humankind.
  • Humans and each other.
  • Humans and creation.
  • The body and the will of humans.
  • This harmony was seen in the complete obedience of Adam and Eve and the fulfilment of their God-given duties in the world.
  • For example, naming the animals (Genesis 2:19) and in tilling and keeping the garden (Genesis 2:15).
• Caritas

  • St. Augustine taught that ‘we will what we love’.
  • Before the Fall, the kind of love found in the world was a selfless, outward, generous love.
  • It was known by the Latin word caritas (Greek = agape).
  • We derive the word charity from caritas.
  • This caritas love was seen best in the relationship between Adam and Eve.
  • They were married, but Augustine characterises their relationship as that of friends.
• Concordia

  • Augustine defined the relationship of Adam and Eve with the word Concordia.
  • This is a relationship that was comfortable, easy and understanding.
  • By friends, Augustine did not mean Adam and Eve had a casual, simplistic relationship.
  • The harmony in this friendship extended to the harmony between the body and will.
  • Sexual activity was at the command of the will.
  • In City of God, Augustine wrote that, ‘nakedness was not yet shameful, because . . . those members [did not move] without the will’s consent.’
• Post-Lapsarian

  • After the Fall there is a loss of harmony in the world.
  • Cupiditas replaces Caritas.
  • Cupiditas is a selfish, inward love of temporary, earthly things.
• Eve & the Fall

  • Cupiditas is first seen in the account of the Fall in the decision of Eve.
  • When the serpent first tempts her, she resists by reminding the serpent of what God had commanded her.
  • The focus remained on God as a demonstration of caritas.
  • But, the serpent pushes her and her focus changes when she sees that the fruit is "a delight to the eyes".
  • This is cupiditas taking over caritas.
• Consequences of the Fall

  • The consequence of the Fall is the breaking of the harmony which God had created.
  • Now, Adam and Eve hide from God instead of walking together in the garden (Genesis 3:8).
  • Now, Adam and Eve try to pass the blame for their actions to others (Genesis 3:12-13).
  • Now, there is enmity between humans and creation (Genesis 3:15, 3:17-18).
  • The friendship of Adam and Eve is damaged. It is now characterised by jealousy and pain.
• Cupiditas

  • The dominance of cupiditas is shown by the emergence of concupiscence or lust.
  • This is not only sexual lust but a lust for the material and the earthly.
  • Concupiscence is no longer under the command of the will.
  • This is opposite to the situation before the Fall.
  • St. Paul wrote ‘For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.’ (Romans 7:18-19)
• St. Augustine

  • In City of God, St. Augustine argues that the shame felt over sex is evidence of how cupiditas has taken us over.
  • He wrote that ‘lust requires for its consummation darkness and secrecy . . . even when he innocently copulates with his wife."
• Origins of original sin

  • Original sin says we are born corrupt, damaged, broken and disharmonious.
  • It begins with the sin of Adam and Eve, but is now passed on through sexual intercourse down the generations.
  • St. Augustine wrote that ‘from the bad use of free will, there originated the whole train of evil, which . . . conveys the human race from its depraved origin, as from a corrupt root’.
• Sex after the Fall

  • Since the Fall, every act of sex is tainted with lust.
  • Sex is infected with concupiscence, and so the results of sex, children, are also tainted.
  • ‘. . . even infants, not personally in their own life . . . have all broken God’s covenant’.
• Original sin & humanity

  • Since we all suffer from original sin, we all have a weakened and divided will, often working at odds with our body.
  • As St. Paul writes, ‘I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but the very thing I hate.’ (Romans 7:15)
  • So, our selfish appetites can gain control over us.
  • This can be either in the form of sexual lust, or the selfish desire for earthly things.
  • St. Augustine argued that ‘we will what we love’, and since what we now love is our own satisfaction, that is what we pursue.